Hue and Cry
by Tha1n0nlYVoyGirl
Summary: AU story set immediatly after "Day of Honor". Voyager encounters an alien race, and when C. discovers that they're stealing, he sends a fearless P. to infiltrate the alien organization.
1. Part 1

Author: Tha1n0nlYVoYGirl  
  
Title: Hue and Cry  
  
Written between: 5 April 2002 and 9 May 2002  
Modified between: 4 October 2002 and 5 March 2003  
  
AN: Set immediately after "Day Of Honor". A strange species has been aboard Voyager while  
B'Elanna and Tom retrieved the warp core. AU story set instead of the events in  
"Nemesis."  
  
Author's note #2: Dialogue in between " and ". Thoughts and the retelling of other person's  
words in between ' and '.  
  
Story including:  
Tom Paris  
Harry Kim  
B'Elanna Torres  
Kathryn Janeway  
Chakotay  
Neelix  
The Doctor   
Naomi Wildman  
The fine ship Voyager  
  
DISCLAIMER: All above belongs to Paramount (www.paramount.com).  
'Star Trek' created by Gene Roddenberry.  
  
Spolier: Season 4 episode, "Day of Honor". The 3 first sentences taken directly from the show.  
  
Stuff that belongs to me:  
Scrich  
Bral  
Ecbel Ecbal  
The Sprai-koo homeworld  
The Sprai-koo people  
The Taali people  
The shuttles  
  
**Dedicated to all devoted Fanfiction writers out there. ~ Keep on writing!**   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
**  
  
HUE AND CRY  
  
***  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"I have to tell you the truth."  
  
"The truth about what?"  
  
"I - I- I love you."  
  
B'Elanna's words tortured Tom as he manually opened the shuttlebay hatch, the only thing  
between the shuttle and open space.  
  
He wanted so badly to tell her that he felt the same way, but he couldn't. Not yet.  
  
***  
The following morning Harry pressed the chime at Captain Kathryn Janeway's door.  
  
"Good morning, Harry," she greeted when he stepped in.   
"However, if you want to complain about extra duty assignments, you can leave again.  
Everyone will have to pull double shifts until we're through this, according to Naomi, creepy  
space."  
  
Harry prepared to explain why he was there, "Tom won't."  
  
The truth, wrapped up, but yet the truth.  
  
The Captain grew suspicious, her eyes narrowed for a while, thoughtful.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I can't find Tom anywhere. He's not at the Holodeck, not in his quarters, not in Sickbay, not  
at the Bridge, not in the Mess, he's not responding to hails, and the computer can't locate him.  
There's also a shuttle missing. 'Cochran' 2. Do the math, Captain."  
  
"Are you implying that Tom ran away tonight?" She was shocked, disbelief so hard it turned into sarcasm.  
  
"It doesn't look better."  
  
"Meet me in Sickbay as soon as you can, and bring B'Elanna. We've got no time to think."  
  
***  
  
Harry immediately hurried to Engineering, to get his friend. A tricky task, according to that her  
shift just had begun.  
Getting her out of her precious work after twenty minutes on duty, wasn't exactly the easiest  
thing to do. However, Harry succeeded. He only told the Chief Engineer three words. "Tom is  
missing."  
  
***   
  
A moment later, in Sickbay, the Doctor considered himself informed.   
  
"You have any idea about what might caused him to leave?" Janeway asked.  
  
"Well, there's many possible reasons to his departure. The real reason knows only Tom. When  
we find that particular reason, we'll find Tom."  
  
"How?"  
  
The Doctor wore his 'professional face' and ignored B'Elanna's question.  
  
"Reasons such as...?" The half- Klingon continued, this time, the Doctor answered.  
  
"A fight, a break-up, a misdeed, traumatic memories, or he simply didn't like it here." The Doctor   
sighed at his own misconceptions.  
  
"Doctor, would you let me strike out the 'reasons' that I don't think we should count on?" Harry cut in.  
  
"Sure, Mr. Kim. Go ahead, the more you don't find possibly, the closer we get to the real  
reason."  
  
"How do we know that that's the real one then? It might very well be another. As you said  
yourself; the only one who knows is Tom!"  
  
"Lieutenant Torres... you interrupted Mr. Kim." The Doctor said varily.  
  
B'Elanna looked angry, Harry took a deep breath, preparing to talk non-stop.  
  
"Okay, here it goes. I'll begin with your first possibility." He cleared his throat.  
  
"Tom's stronger than that. If he'd cared that much about fights, he'd left long ago. Right after  
joining in. I mean, all the Maquis fought with him,"   
He shot a certain Maquis a look.  
"Some Starfleet personnel did too. The second one; Tom didn't have a girlfriend, so he can't  
be devastated by a break-up. And running for the sake of a misdeed, I don't think so.   
He stands for his actions, how stupid they might be. And as late as a month ago he told me that  
Voyager was the best home he'd ever had. Then the only thing left I traumatic memories."  
  
"I agree with you, Harry. Tom wouldn't go because of such--"  
  
A commbadge chirping interrupted Kathryn.  
  
::Tuvok to Janeway::  
  
::Janeway here. Go ahead::  
  
::We've located the shuttle::  
  
:: Where?::  
  
:: At an I-class planet 200 000 kilometers ahead, the homeworld of the Sprai-koo::  
  
::Not the one's we tried to make business with just yesterday?::  
  
::I'm afraid so, Captain::  
  
::Any sign of Tom?::  
  
::Negative::  
  
::All right. Janeway out::  
  
"Harry?"  
  
"Captain?"  
  
"You want to see your friend?"  
  
"Of course!"  
  
"Then take the 'Coulee' and head for the Sprai-koo homeworld."  
  
Harry smiled widely. It wasn't every day he got such a mission on his shoulders.  
  
"Yes, Captain."  
  
"Doctor?" B'Elanna asked. "Can a sudden message regarding a friend's deadly disease or,  
let's say, an unexpected confession of love, be other possible reasons why Tom Paris left?"   
She scraped a little with the toe of her boot.   
  
"Yes, it might very well be."  
  
B'Elanna moaned.  
  
Harry grabbed his friends left arm. "Why, Maquis? Are you sick?"  
  
She shook of his hand, the sudden concern in his eyes almost scared her.  
  
"I'm just exploring other possibilities."  
  
"Oh." Harry looked embarrassed away. 'He must have heard the sheer desperation in his voice  
too,' Torres thought. She turned to the Captain.  
  
"May I assist Harry at this mission?"  
  
Janeway placed a hand on her Chief Engineer's shoulder.  
  
"I hoped you'd say that, B'Elanna."  
  
She did hope so, but yet, for a brief moment Kathryn hesitated. She didn't really want to send  
her best engineer away on a dangerous rescue, along with one of her best Ops tactics, to get  
her mostly skilled pilot back from his crazy desertion.  
And rescued, that was exactly what she thought Tom Paris needed to get. The brown skinned,  
fair-haired Sprai-koo had proved to be both violent and hostile during their short meeting.  
  
"Then I can go."  
  
"Of course you can."  
  
Janeway tried to look like she'd never considered anything else. Receiving the Doctor's weird  
looks, she understood that her brief hesitation had unveiled her. This rescue mission was going  
to be dangerous, and now both Kathryn Janeway, the EMH, Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres  
knew it.   
  
*** 


	2. Part 2

Chakotay, who's shift just had started, headed down a hallway when he suddenly ran into...  
  
"Kathryn!"  
  
"Good morning to you too. Why do you looks so shocked?" She looked amused, holding the  
usual cup of coffee.   
  
"Why have you assigned Michels this shift? I thought Harry was supposed to take it."  
  
"He was. But I send Harry and B'Elanna to the Sprai-koo's homeworld, to get Tom back."  
  
Chakotay paled and violently struck his brow in dismay while he practically yelled.  
  
"Oh no! You can't have done that Kathryn!"  
  
"I am the Captain on this ship. I do what I find suiting the situation. In this case a pilot leaving  
his ship, for an unknown reason. What better can I do than to send his friends to look for  
him?"  
  
"I'll take this from the beginning. Last night, after you finally went to get some rest, I saw two  
beings from the Sprai-koo ship downloading information from our Computer.   
Later I managed to find out that they copied the warp core's blue-prints.   
  
I also overheard them talking. Something about that they only needed a few more things.   
One of them mentioned that it 'was time for another visit to their generous neighbors', the  
Taali. At first I planned to arrest the two thieves, but I realized that they only were a part of  
something real big.   
  
They are planning something, and out warp technology is a vital part of it. As you might recall,  
they didn't yet possess Warp speed.   
  
So I ran to the Bridge, hoping that you'd still be there. However, the Bridge was empty,  
except Tom Paris. During those few weeks when he was in the Maquis, I admired his ability to  
sneak in and out without being seen. I actually thought he was a Starfleet spy for a while.  
Yet today, I'm stunned over how silent he can walk, if he just want's to.   
  
Back to last night, I knew that something had to be done right away, the aliens were about to  
beam off Voyager, back to their own ship. There was no time to inform evryone and have a breifing.  
So I sent Paris to follow them. To infiltrate their organization and report their plans to me.   
Hopefully we'll be able to scatter them for the wind.   
  
I was on my way to tell you right now, so we could wait and prepare for that information, if  
Paris succeeds. I certainly didn't count on you sending a naïve Ensign and a hot-tempered  
engineer to 'retrieve' him!!"  
  
Janeway removed the hand she held over her mouth and exclaimed,  
  
"What have I done?! You have to inform me right away about everything!  
You know that!!"  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, aboard the shuttle 'Coulee'. Two friends worried about a third.   
  
"You know Maquis, you really freaked me out for a moment."  
  
"In Sickbay?"  
  
"Yeah. You chose two strange reasons, you know that?"  
  
"One of those reasons are true! It's my fault that he left, Harry!"  
B'Elanna didn't even bother to keep the truth to herself anymore.  
  
The man wearing the mustard colored shirt paled.  
"You mean you really do have a deadly illness!"  
  
"No, Starfleet! I'm not sick."  
  
"Then what--" Harry interrupted himself. "You told Tom that you love him?"  
  
Meeting the former Maquis' guilty gaze, Harry started to smile.  
  
"This is not funny! He left because of me!"  
  
"If I was Tom I'd be thrilled." Harry frowned at the helm, entering commands every now and then.   
  
"Well, apparently he wasn't! Keep your eyes on the viewscreen! There's a place where you  
can land."  
  
***   
  
Bypassing the password control was a mere trifle for Tom. He fooled the system to believe  
that he'd already written an affirmed password, before a major software error had occurred.   
A few minutes after entering the large, white building, he already was about to crack their  
security code. It proved to be a difficult task, instead of developing their own warp drive, they  
seemed to have concentrated on security.  
  
Tom had learned a few tricks in prison, but to solve all of their complicated codes, he needed  
time. The heavy steps which approached him didn't buy him a lot more time, actually no more  
time. He slammed his fist at the console he worked on and shut it down. Doing that, he loosed  
all the information he'd managed to gather for the past fifteen minutes.  
  
When he noticed that those steps were utterly close he turned around and tried to look lost.   
  
A high ranked Sprai-koo male rounded the corner next to Tom.   
  
"Are you one of those 'hunans' from the warp capable starship?"  
  
"Yes, I'm a 'human.'" Tom pronounced the species as tactful as he could.  
  
"What do you want here then?"  
  
Tom leaned closer to the officer and looked around, acting like he was going to reveal an  
important secret.  
"I want to see your superior. The one single at the top."  
  
"Why should I take you to her?"  
  
Tom shrugged, like it did not really matter. "I'm looking for a job."  
  
"Here?" The Sprai-koo nearly burst out in laughter, but stopped himself from doing such an action in public.  
  
'Boy, does this one need time to put two and two together,' Tom thought. He decided to  
explain his errand real slow.  
  
"Voyager bores me out. I need action in my life. Adventure! This seems to be the right place." He couldn't believe   
what he actually was saying.  
  
"I'm not sure..."  
  
"I've got lots of information about Voyager, the ship I came with. You might find it... useful."  
  
The Sprai-koo turned Tom around, grabbed his arm and began to walk.   
"Very well. My name is Ecbel. Supervisor of the Third Squadron."  
  
"Nice. I'm Tom... Supervisor of the... Helm."  
  
Ecbel led him through several long, gloomy hallways. They didn't meet anyone before Ecbel  
stopped in front of a pair of doors, with two aliens in front, apparently guards.   
  
'Finally,' Tom thought, 'Other living beings.'  
One of the guards asked for; "Name and errand?" He was the taller, the one of the two who inspired respect.   
  
"Ecbel Ecbal, Supervisor of the Third Squadron. I wish to see Scrih."  
  
The guards whispered to each other. Tom could hear and understand only fragments such as;  
'The Third Squadron is very small...' or 'What's that thing he's bringing... maybe another toy  
for Scrih...'  
  
"You may pass." They finally announced.  
  
Ecbal and Tom walked past them, towards the two doors, when the second guard grabbed  
Tom's shoulder.   
  
"Third Supervisor, leave the trash on this side."  
  
Tom snorted.  
  
"This is my errand," Ecbal explained.   
  
When they were allowed to walk again the guards began to whisper again. "I told you it was  
another toy."  
  
Tom snorted again.   
  
Ecbel Ecbal practically dragged the 'Starfleet flyboy' through the doors the gossiping guards  
watched.   
  
Behind the doors they found themselves inside a big room, but yet even more gloomy than the  
hallways.  
A beautiful female Sprai-koo sat behind a desk. She was actually fairly young, too.  
"Ecbel, leave us." She commanded after a look at Tom and a brief conversation with her minor  
officer. Ecbel obeyed and went out through a door to Tom's right.  
  
"I am Scrih. The Superior Head of this organization."  
  
"Then I came to the right place after all, I doubted for a while. By the way, you can call me  
Tom."  
  
Playing charades in front of women, now that was something Tom was really good at.   
  
"The right place for what?"  
  
She seemed to take the bait.  
  
"I'm looking for a job."  
  
"I see. And I understand that you've got much useful information about your former ship and  
her crew?" He now had her undivided attention. She rested her elbows on the desk and leaned  
forward a bit, smiling encouragily.  
  
"Yeah, I can confess that I do know one thing and another."  
  
"At least about the women aboard, I guess..."  
  
Tom flashed her a wide smile, inside he wondered if she flirted with him.  
"I'll settle for pretty much any job..."  
  
"Okay, I'll give you a job. But..."  
  
'Oh, great! There's always a 'but'! ' Tom thought.  
  
Scrih continued, "To prove that you, in the future, will be loyal to me, only me. Not to your  
former Captain, you'll tell me the password to your main systems."  
  
"Like life support?"  
  
"And to your weapons."  
  
"Sure, I can do that, but you can't get aboard and use it now anyway. The main alarm will set  
off immediately."  
  
"I don't plan to access all of your systems 'now', you fool! I'll use it later."  
  
Hot-tempered. But for B'Elanna she wouldn't be a match. B'Elanna. Tom closed his eyes for a  
brief second.   
  
"All right. You can use mine."  
  
"What is it then?"  
  
She looked more and more excited.  
  
"Paris17A6-52."  
  
Scrih flashed him a wicked smile.  
  
'She couldn't possibly have 'believed' that one?'  
  
"That was very kind of you... Tim. You've got a new job, kid. Sector 57. The town of  
Morekay. I'll inform my, and now also your, contact there. Shiral, she owns a little bar in  
Morekay. Cozy, I've visited it once. I usually let my contacts come to me. You'll work there,  
at the same time you'll be on the lookout."  
  
'Tim? Kid?!', Tom thought, but said, "On the lookout for what?"  
  
"That'll vary. Right now, you'll look out for any other hunans. Tell me, do you have any  
experience in bars?"  
  
"I've visited a few in my time." He coughed discreetly.  
  
Scrih laughed, a short, genuine laugh.  
  
"Can you serve drinks?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Good. Then you're the new bartender."  
  
"What happened with the old one?"  
  
"His eyes weren't... sharp enough."  
  
Her smile made him downhearted.  
"Ecbel will take you there, tonight."  
  
*** 


	3. Part 3

Inside 'Cochran' 2, B'Elanna and Harry have found it.   
  
"It's no use trying to figure out what happened to Tom by looking in or at the shuttle, Harry.  
Everything in the computer has been deleted." B'Elanna slammed her fist against the console she'd been manipulating.  
  
"Great! Now what?" Harry exclaimed.  
  
B'Elanna looked questiongly at Harry.   
  
"I mean, what are we going to do now?"  
  
"Calm down, Harry. We'll find him."  
  
"How? We don't know where to look!"  
  
"Did you expect this to be easy? That we'd land and Tom would walk up to us and ask to be  
fetched? The hardest thing isn't to 'find' him, it'll be to convince him to 'come back'!"  
  
"I know! But to be able to convince him, we need to 'find' him!"  
  
"We'll just have to think like Tom."  
  
"That's easy." Harry chuckled, already given up.  
  
"What would you do if you were here, if you were Tom Paris?" At least B'Elanna didn't   
show any signs of civing up.  
  
"You're just messing everything up, Maquis."  
  
"I'd at least try to get a job, if I was Tom." She ignored Harry's pointless wining.  
  
"We still don't know if Tom would."  
  
"How else would he survive? Like you said; he's smart."  
  
"Okay, okay! What kind of job would you take, if you were Tom Paris?"  
  
"Well, what does he like to do?" She shrugged, suddenly wishing she would have had gone   
out with him a couple of times.  
  
"He loves to fly."  
  
"He's smarter than looking for a job as a pilot here, when Voyager still is in this planet's  
orbit."  
  
"Yeah." Harry frowned, concentrated. "Hey! Another thing he loves to do is to hand around bars!"  
  
"Harry, you're a genius! He's got a job at a bar!"  
  
Harry laughed t his friend's expression, sheer joy mixed with hope and temperance.  
"How can you be so sure?"  
  
"I'm not. I'm just trying to convince myself that I'm right," she said easily and jumped out of the shuttle.   
Harry came soon after.  
  
"Well get yourself back down from those clouds you're up in. 'Cause we're going to search  
through every little brawn at this planet!"  
  
Now it was B'Elanna's turn to laugh, at Harry's sudden enthusiasm. She had to take him down  
from those same clouds she'd been up in just a second ago.  
  
"At least the ones close by. He can't have gotten that far without the shuttle."  
  
***  
  
Two days later, B'Elanna and Harry walked planless around in a small town, they looked for a  
bar.  
  
"I'm really tired, Maquis. For the past two days we've visited fifteen different bars."  
  
"And yet no sign of 'Tommy Boy'," she sighed and ran a hand through her rumpled hair.  
  
"Gaunt Gary-talk, huh?"  
  
"I've been to so many bars, and had so much different alcohol that I'm beginning to actually  
understand the 'official bartalk'."  
  
"Oh no! Not another one!" Harry shrieked.  
  
Starfleet and Maquis both laughed, B'Elanna looked down at her stumbling feet for a moment  
and when she looked up again she saw something. A small, no, a very small bar, almost hidden  
next to an alley.  
  
"There." B'Elanna's eyes narrowed to a pin-point.  
  
"What?" Harry couldn't see anything utterly remarkable.  
  
"Another bar."  
  
"Oh no! Not another one!"  
  
"Why not? I surely could use some liquor. And didn't you say those exact words a few steps  
away?"  
  
B'Elanna grinned, and they started to laugh again as they stumbled towards the little bar. They  
weren't really drunk, just couldn't walk straight over the worse for wear cobblestones.  
  
Stuffy air hit B'Elanna as soon as she walked in, close after Harry. It smelled like alcohol and  
smoke. Very much of it.  
"How come that they've got two things at almost every planet we visit? Alcohol and stuff to  
smoke."  
  
Harry grabbed her upper arm. "There's Tom!" He sounded tense.  
  
"Where?" Now it was B'Elanna's turn to not see what her friend saw.  
  
"The bartender," Harry urged.  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"B'Elanna, I might not see very well in this dim light, but it's the only one in here without a  
tail."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Harry and B'Elanna zigzagged towards the bardisk, the bartender had his back towards them.  
  
"Hey, bartender!" Harry called and placed a heavy hand on the disk.  
  
"What do you want?" He was occupied, polishing a glass with a cloth.  
  
'It surely sounds like Tom', Harry thought and called again.   
  
"How about a missing Starfleet pilot?"  
The bartender turned around, it really was Tom, shocked. He regained control quickly.  
  
"Will a Bloody Mary due... Harry? And how about you, B'Elanna? Can I get you some  
Raktjino?"  
  
"No, I just want my best friend." Harry answered with a strange, thich voice. It was  
probably all the tension letting go.  
  
The female Starfleet officer ogled at Harry Kim and noticed that he had tears in his eyes.  
  
Tom apparently saw it too, because he opened a small door in the corner of the disk.   
He motioned to his friends to step in to him on the other side.   
  
When they did, Tom opened another door, which was right behind the bardisk, in between  
many shelves full with oddly shaped bottles and jars, and shoved his friends inside a small  
office.  
  
Tom closed the door behind them, he used a small knob in the middle.  
  
"All the doors at this place you have to open manually, much similar to 20th century doors."  
He explained.  
  
"Then you must be very pleased."  
  
Tom laughed at B'Elanna's comment, when he noticed the other two people staring at his  
outfit.  
  
He wore an odd, black hat, a white shirt, black slacks and a scarf lazily draped over his  
shoulders, also in the same black color.   
Everything was made out of a very light and thin fabric.  
  
"Hey, guys, stop staring like that! This is my uniform!"  
  
Harry giggled. "I can see that. You look like you usually do early mornings at the Bridge."  
  
"Which makes the Captain, 'so' happy."  
  
"It might, but she can't really chew up her own little protégé completely, can she?"  
  
"Thanks, but I've never before had a scarf, and I'm not the Captain's protégé! Now, let's leave  
that and talk about more important stuff. Exactly when did Chakotay loose his faith in me and  
send you too?"  
  
"Chakotay? The Captain sent us." B'Elanna reluctantly replied.  
  
"The Captain? Does she finally know why I'm here?"  
  
"I told her that I couldn't find you anywhere, and that 'Cochran' 2 was missing. She,  
B'Elanna, Doc and I came to the unison conclution that you finally was tired of us and ran  
away."  
  
"What? I'm not tired of you! I haven't fled from my ship! Chakotay discovered Sprai-koo's  
stealing at Voyager, so he send me to expose their conspiracy. A big organization involving  
Voyager and hundreds of other innocent ships. There was no time to contact the Captain!"   
Tom sounded desperate, and it soothed his two friends extremely.  
  
"What a relief! I thought it was my fault that you left." B'Elanna exclaimed.  
  
"Awww. Cheer up, Torres!" Tom put a finger under her cheek, pushed it upwards, mildly  
forcing her to look up at him.  
  
"It was absolutely not your fault, and I am planning to return again. As long as I manage to  
survive long enough to transmit the information Voyager needs to burst this dirty bubble."  
  
"So you didn't need us?"  
  
"Actually, Harry, I was feeling quite lonely. After three days seeing nothing but 'Koo's and  
their long, awful tails. This is a planet that doesn't like strangers, as you might've noticed."  
  
Tom laughed, and startled his friends by hugging the both of them. All of B'Elanna's thoughts  
about guilt quickly ran off her.   
  
"Besides, I can use you. Harry, you're good at cracking codes of all sorts, especially on time.  
You seem to handle stress very well. That I can really need."  
  
Harry almost blushed at the sudden praise.  
  
"And I can't think of one mission when you don't need a big, strong Klingon to knock down  
the enemies in your way to the glory of victory!"  
  
"Calm down a bit, I'm not that strong, and definitely not big either, but sure, I'll help you. One  
or two I can always handle." She shrugged in an unusual humble manner. The next second she nearly had  
an heart attack.  
  
"TIM! I'm going away for a few days!"  
  
The door flung open and a middle-aged, female Sprai-koo appeared in the small doorway.  
  
"More hunans?"   
  
She said, while she scrutinized Torres and Kim. Her wild eyes narrowed.   
  
"Humans. They're tired of Voyager too, and they could use a job each."  
  
"Have you informed them?"  
  
"No, they will not join."  
  
"Good. One hunan is one too many."  
  
Harry felt like his best friend and the unknown female talked above his head, like he and  
B'Elanna weren't there. He didn't like that belittle feeling.  
  
"I'm in a hurry so..." The strange woman raked together a few things from a nearby shelf and  
forced them down in a pocket.   
  
The female shoved a finger decorated with a long, red-brown nail up in Tom's face.  
"You! Go back to whatever you were doing."  
  
She turned and pointed at Harry, her stretched finger shivered with repressed anger.  
Apparently she wasn't too thrilled to see the two newcomers.  
  
"You clean up this place! And you..."  
  
She approached B'Elanna, who was ready to knock her pronounced cheekbones in. The  
Klingon genes didn't have to take control, since the approacher's voice changed and she  
suddenly looked very mild, gentle and friendly.  
  
"You are in charge when I'm gone."  
  
"Me? But I just got here--" B'Elanna was taken aback.  
  
"See that these two do their jobs! One thing all three of you should know, is that I have only  
one rule. Do not develop deep feeling for any customer."  
  
"Oh, poor me! I've been watching that dirty drunk hunk sitting in there."  
B'Elanna's voice dripped with sarcasm, she had definitely not any thought on falling in love  
with one of those people.  
  
"Well, there'll be nothing with that! You hear me? Nothing!"  
  
And she was gone.  
  
"Who was that?" Harry whispered as soon as her footsteps were completely faded. He had no  
desire to get a finger like that between his eyes again.  
  
"Shiral. She's the owner, as you might have figured out. My 'contact' here to the  
Organization."  
  
"Why did she call you 'Tim' and us 'hunans'?"  
  
"The Sprai-koo people have a very hard time remembering names, you can really confuse  
them," he chuckled.  
  
"Why did she leave me in charge? You've been here three days now, right? You should be  
much more qualified. Doesn't she have anyone else working here?" B'Elanna frowned, and  
waved her hands in disbelief.  
  
"No, it'll be just the three of us. I reckon she can go to a grand meeting tonight, thanks to me.  
If I hadn't been here 'working', she couldn't leave without closing the bar. Which would be a  
plain bad idea, since these drunkards would break in anyway as soon as she'd left."  
  
"But why 'me' in charge?"  
  
"Ah. At this planet the women's got the upper hand. Men are looked at as replaceable trash.  
That's why this race utterly seldom marries."  
  
"And how about Earth?" B'Elanna asked sweetly.  
  
"Earth? There it's equal between men and women."  
  
"Oh, really? How come Janeway is the first female Captain in Starfleet history then?"  
She said, with a slight tone of triumph hidden in her voice.  
  
Tom and Harry both found themselves speechless. Something very unusual in Tom's case.  
  
B'Elanna smiled while she opened the door which Shiral had slammed close where she left.   
B'Elanna took a step backwards, and stepped at something. A broken bottle. 'Shiral has strong  
arms,' she thought.  
  
"Come on, thrash boys! We've got a bar to run!"  
  
*** 


	4. Part 4

That night Tom invited a female singer, she'd asked for a gig the day before.  
  
Tom and B'Elanna stood behind the bardisk. She counting Z'wera, the Sprai-koo currency, he  
wiping the oval bowls used to drink from.  
  
The singer began with her first tune.  
  
B'Elanna learned how to hide her commbadge beneath her outermost article of clothing.  
Which was very good, and completely necessary, cause without it she wouldn't get a word  
anyone, except Tom and Harry, uttered.  
  
The first song was about a war, fought many years ago between the Sprai-koo and the Warua.  
B'Elanna didn't like it, the pointless violence remembered her of the early Klingon wars.  
Thankfully the singer ended the tune and began singing another.  
  
"Can you keep that look  
In your eyes for me  
Forever  
And ever  
Forever  
Only for me  
  
When we met the sky's were grey  
My life was empty  
You brought the sunrise  
Changes to my heart  
  
I hope tomorrow you'll be there  
With me  
Facing all the world  
The crowded cafes  
Knowing that you'll stand  
By me  
  
Can you keep that look in your eyes for me  
Forever  
And ever  
And ever  
I hope so  
Forever  
Only for me"  
  
As the beautiful words faded away, Tom laid down the rag he used beside him.  
B'Elanna stopped counting long ago, the profit wasn't at a high rate that evening. She looked  
at the entertainer with a distant, dreaming look in her eyes.  
  
'She looks so beautiful!' Tom thought, staring at her.  
  
B'Elanna felt his burning gaze and looked up, puzzled.  
Tom found the puzzled look even more gorgeous and leaned his head slightly. She copied.  
  
Almost painfully slowly they came closer to each other. The air between them bound them  
together, loaded as it were with silly expectations, with fear.   
And finally, their lips met in a soft brush, lasting only a second.  
  
After a few more of those seconds, they kissed each other deeply when a customer abruptly  
shouted,  
  
"Hey! Can you get a little service here!"  
  
B'Elanna desperately wanted to stay as she was, so she reached up behind her and took a full  
bottle down from a nearby shelf.  
Still involved in the kiss she detailed moved the bottle from her left hand to her right.  
  
The customer had leaned forward over the bardisk.   
B'Elanna raised the bottle, still with her eyes closed, and hit.   
  
The sound of a material similar to glass falling to the floor at the same time as a muffled thump  
reached her ears, assured B'Elanna that she'd hit a good spot.  
  
***  
  
The office, Shiral's Bar, Morekay Town, Sprai-koo, Delta Quadrant.  
  
"Okay, it might not have been too good to knock down a Sprai-koo spy with a bottle of the  
finest liquor, but you could have told me!!" B'Elanna shouted.  
  
"Oh, and how should I've been able to do that? Maybe at the same time you were pressing a  
few vertebraes into my neck?!" Tom shouted back.  
  
"Yeah, that was the right time!"  
  
"I don't know why that guy was knocked out and I don't know why you've got a sore neck,  
Tom. But I'd like to because it surely wasn't easy to occupy every customer in there while you  
two got that guy into this room."  
  
"You told some great jokes, Harry, this people just have a different sense of humor."  
  
"So do you, Paris! No one understands your lousy jokes either!"  
  
"You shouldn't be picking at me, Torres! You were the one who hit him!"  
  
"Will you two stop it!" Harry shrieked. "Are we going to keep him imprisoned here?"  
  
"We could always try, but he'd get out no matter how hard we'd tire ourselves out."  
  
"I see... You're talking about your own 'career' at Auckland."  
  
"Stop it, B'Elanna! Tom, what are we going to do then?" Harry pushed her hair backwards, looking both   
anoyed and panicking.  
  
"A slight rescheduling. We'll leave this place the first thing in the dawn, if there's a dawn  
here."  
  
Harry frowned, "'If there's a dawn here'?"   
  
"It's late evening here, but yet it looks like an afternoon at Earth."  
The only woman in there sarcastically said,   
"'And then we're going to go to the mighty Headquarters, get in, find and collect the  
information we need, send it to Voyager, get out again, wait for Voyager to pick us up and  
save everybody, resume our ordinary course and finally, make it back home to Earth and live  
happily ever after.'"  
  
"All in all, yes. But it probably won't be that easy."  
  
"No," She said with emphasis. "That was not what I meant."  
  
"What made you so sour?" Harry could not believe the sudden change from  
relieved to completely angry, B'Elanna had gone through.  
  
B'Elanna couldn't say that she mostly was mad at herself for ruining things with Tom, almost  
before it had started.  
She decided to defend her newly won honor, at the best way she could.  
"I'm not sour!"  
  
"Not? Then I suggest you change that expression, 'cause this one looks like you just ate a  
whole lemon or maybe... some leola root." Tom said with conviction.  
  
The half-Klingon clenched her fists and bit her tongue, it took all of her will-power not to hit  
him.   
'How can he be so nice some times, and such a total moron at others?' She thought, clenching  
her fists even more.  
  
"Guys, should we go pack out things and prepare for our trip to the lion's den?"  
Harry said enthustically, he tried to be the comic again. His attempt to relieve the depressed  
spirits did not succeed.  
  
*** 


	5. Part 5

***  
  
Voyager had docked with a tremendous Taali ship since an hour.   
  
Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay and Tuvok looked around inside the Taali Commanders Quarters.   
  
Bare walls to every side, a single viewport and nothing in sight to sit on.  
Kathryn doubted that the Taali ever sat or laid down and took a break.   
They were really busy as bees.  
Starfleet personnel at least rested once in a while.   
  
"They'll make good allies." Chakotay whispered.  
  
"A fine Starfleet officer once said the same about the Maquis."  
  
"Really? What happened, did he try to talk the Maquis into it?"  
"He tried. A month later he was picked by a Maquis." Janeway finished and looked down,  
Chakotay frowned. Tuvok didn't move a muscle.  
  
An invisible door opened from nowhere and the Commander of the Taali ship greeted the three  
Starfleeter's.  
  
"What do you like my ship?" He asked, and looked at them with a strange glint in his eye.  
  
"It's fascinating, a good work. In other words; a perfect ship."  
  
"Thank you. Every Taali usually asks his visitors what they think about his ship, even before  
introducing himself. If they don't like it, they aren't worthy his time. However, if they do, they  
are welcome as his special guests. I am Bral, the commanding officer at this ship, the PNX-1.  
Once again, welcome to my 'fascinating' ship."  
  
"I am Captain Kathryn Janeway, master of the ship docked at your starboard side, the U.S.S.  
Voyager. This is two of my senior Bridge officers. Commander Chakotay, first officer, and  
Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, Security Chief."  
  
"Nice to be here." Chakotay smiled.  
  
"Good morning," said Tuvok.  
  
"What brings you here, Captain Kathryn Janeway?"  
  
Janeway raised her eyebrows in awe.  
"You pronounced my name exactly right. Not many of the Sprai-koo managed to."  
  
"Remembering names, and faces, happens to be one of my people's specialties. In opposite to  
the Sprai-koo, as you noticed, they are terrible at names outside their own species. It surprises  
me that they can say 'Sprai-koo' at all."  
  
"The Sprai-koo are actually the reason we're here."  
  
"Oh? They've stole something from your ship? Stupid little thieves."  
  
"Blue prints of out engines and warp core," she admitted.  
  
"Warp. Something neither the Taali or the Sprai-koo have been able to master. Uncountable  
tries have been made. Did they get away?"  
  
"I'm afraid they did." She glanced at Chakotay, he tried to look cool in front of the Captain's  
accusing glare. Apparently she didn't think it was smart to let them get away with the blue  
prints.  
  
"That was bad. Really bad. They have stole many things from us through the years. Vital  
pieces of technology. Some missing items have been so important that we've been forced to  
stand still in space for several days. I believe they're building a warship. The warp engines will  
make them invincible to this region of space."  
  
"That's why we are trying to stop them. But we'll need your help."  
  
"Mine? Nobody has ever asked for my help before."  
  
"Now somebody is, Commander Bral. Will you help us? We don't have enough time for careful consideration."  
  
"An alliance?"  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"I'll join in." He straightened himself out. "But two ships aren't enough to fight a powerful  
warp warship. Not close to enough."  
  
"Voyager is classed as a warship too."  
  
"A small one," Bral shrugged.  
  
"According to you, maybe. If we install a few weapons here, you'll be able to defend yourself  
better."  
  
"I'll join to win. Not to defend myself. Even that won't be enough, I tell you!"  
  
Kathryn tried to calm down, she couldn't afford to use this help.   
"I know. If you just could scrape together a few more ships..."  
  
"I'll do my best."  
  
"It might calm you a little to know that Voyager has won quite many battles, even ones that  
seemed hopeless in the beginning. We've even fought the Borg."  
  
"Did you win?"  
  
"If we hadn't, I'd be assimilating Talaxian's, 'talking' to billions of others, or regenerating  
right now."  
  
"Your humor is... special. Returning to our mission, I have a few friends that might want to  
help..."  
  
"I truly appreciate it." Captain Janeway said and shook Bral's long fingers.  
  
"The whole crew appreciates it." Tuvok corrected.  
  
Bral nodded and bowed. "My whole people appreciates your efforts to stop these robbers."  
  
Chakotay cleared his throat, as a sign for Bral, that a bow wasn't necessary.  
Bral looked up and then bowed again.  
Voyager's first officer groaned and got a sharp glare from Janeway.   
  
Bral finally stopped his bowing. "I hope you wish to stay for dinner?"  
  
"Absolutely, Commander."  
  
Kathryn tried to perform a curtsey in her Starfleet standard uniform. It looked more like she  
fought not to loose her foothold.  
  
Chakotay cleared his throat once again, this time to choke an improper giggle.  
  
*** 


	6. Part 6

Tom threw the elastic rope across the wall, like he'd done once before.  
The double staple collided with the high wall, making a hollow noise, which echoed across the  
deserted area.  
At least it seemed deserted, Harry truly hoped it was, but deep down he, along with his two  
friends, knew that it wasn't. And if it was abandoned, they'd have to keep searching for the  
enemy hide-out, find it, and try to get in there.  
  
Tom slowly pulled at the end of the rope until the staple hooked on to something, a protruding  
piece of the wall.   
He began to climb the approximately eight meters to the top, using the rope.  
  
Both Starfleet and Maquis wondered in they had underestimated Tom Paris, the man who  
seemed to stand right between both 'Fleet and Maquis, seriously.  
  
At the top Tom tied another rope to the one he'd used to get up.  
  
Harry was the next one up, he hadn't many positive feelings about climbing in ropes. To help  
himself, he imagined that this mission was the one going to get him up the promotion ladder,  
symbolized by the rope.  
  
Harry had quite an unusual style, he grabbed the rope and pulled himself a bit up from the  
barren ground. He then did something resembling to swimming upwards, his crawling  
reminded B'Elanna of a worm.   
  
He also made it up. When he looked down at Tom before grabbing the other rope, he suddenly  
got a feeling that he'd fall back and land, hurting on the side he just was about to left.   
But Harry didn't fall on his back, he made it over the wall's top and jumped the last two  
meters down.   
An incredible stupid thing to do, when he thought about it afterwards.   
  
His usual bad luck struck again and he landed on his toes, felt his right foot twitch forward  
abruptly with an unpleasant sound.  
  
Kim looked up from where he sat, crouched down, his foot ached a little and he felt pearls of  
sweat break out at his forehead.   
  
Deep inside he knew that he'd sprained his ankle, or worse, yet he was a little surprised it  
ached so little. Scanning his head for the little medical knowledge he had, he came to the  
conclusion that he was in a mild chock.   
  
Tom was a few feet away, trying to scream instructions low to B'Elanna; like anyone can  
scream low.   
He hadn't noticed his friends unfortunate accident.  
  
The Ensign stood up and tried to walk at his foot. It worked, even if it looked a little bumpy.   
He decided to not tell his friends, as well superior officers, about what happened.   
He broke the Starfleet rules by keeping such a thing from anyone superior, but if he talked,  
they'd just keep his pace or leave him behind.   
  
Harry didn't want to be left alone at the place they were, in his condition. Nor did he want to  
slow all of them down.   
He decided to walk the best he could, and if either Tom or B'Elanna noticed, he'd stay  
voluntarily and take his punishment when they got back to the ship.  
  
'So much for that promotion,' Harry sighed.   
  
*  
  
B'Elanna was alone at the outside, she could hear Tom tell her what to do, and it made her  
mad. It couldn't be that hard, she was a Klingon, at least she had Klingon blood in her veins,  
and on the whole she could do almost everything.   
  
This stupid exercise, to climb over a wall, was probably a part of the Starfleet training she'd  
missed out on by dropping out.   
If she recalled boot camps' tracks correctly, this was a part of them.  
In the Maquis she got training, stayings at boot camps , a lot of them, but she'd never seen this  
particular stupid moment.   
  
'This moron exercise could have been scheduled to the Freshman year!' She angrily thought,  
while she grabbed the rope with both hands.   
  
Pulling herself up, using only her armstrenght, various crewmembers' whispering comments  
flew through her mind. 'Torres must have very strong arms.'  
'Look at her muscles, I'm so lucky I've never been mangled by her.'   
This morning she had a chance to prove how true it really was.  
  
Torres managed to pull herself all the way up. She clumsily straddled the three feet thick wall  
and rested her heavy feet and legs against the cool sides.  
  
On her way down, which she believed should be much easier than the horrible way up, she  
suddenly lost her foothold after only a meter.   
  
She slipped down the wall, cursing at Klingon. The rope slid painfully fast beneath her fingers,  
penetrating even the hardened skin covering her palms.  
  
B'Elanna thought that she'd soon feel the ground, hit her back and lay unconscious.   
She fell out-of-control, her body always brushing towards the wall passing by in slow-motion.  
If she only knew where her feet were, she would have pressed them hard against the material,  
and try to slow down.  
  
Her unoptional rope-sliding lucky enough came to an end, as everything else in her life had,  
though not to her advantage.   
  
Soon it ended, and everything that happened only took a few seconds.   
B'Elanna didn't lay unconscious, instead she found herself, lying like a baby, in Tom Paris'  
arms. Still holding the rope.   
  
Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres felt very humiliated, falling, incapable to stop herself, and then  
ending up in the arms of a human.  
  
Not that she disliked it, but she knew she could stay there forever, not with the two men  
staring at her.  
Harry had that look he always got when someone, anyone, was in severe danger. He looked  
like a scared, hunted rabbit.   
Tom's concerning, questioning blue eyes pierced her.  
  
She made herself free rather fast. "I'm okay."  
  
Standing on the firm ground, her palms and fingers burning with pain, B'Elanna wished that  
she could show herself a little vulnerably, just once.  
  
A pressing silence spread around them.   
  
Tom left the two ropes hanging, he wouldn't get them down anyway, not if he either got a ship  
or sprouted wings and learned to fly on his own.   
  
The small break out group silently prepared to walk the, according to Earth measures, good  
two kilometers to their goal.   
  
Tom and B'Elanna, one by one, checked their equipment, that they had a backpacker each, and  
so on.   
  
Harry tried to bandage his ankle with a dark scarf he'd brought alone in case of sun, without  
being seen.   
  
"We need to get there as soon as possible." Tom broke the silence, "Before the second sun  
goes up."  
  
In the west shined a pale sun. Two of the three officers walked, another one limped, in the  
opposite direction.  
  
***  
  
To be continued..... 


	7. Part 7

Voyager's Captain picked in the odd food before her. The Taali's national dish, Muurha, was  
something that made Leola root stew look tempting. At least they got to  
sit down, though on hard stools.  
She coughed discreetly. This was a good opportunity for her to bring up the coming alliance.   
"So, Bral--"  
  
"We do not talk while enjoying a meal." He cut off and continued to shuffle food in his mouth.  
  
"Enjoying." She quietly muttered in Chakotay's direction. His wine was long gone, but his  
food also remained untouched.  
  
Bral continued to eat his meal with hunger, Tuvok also ate, though only to be polite.  
  
Kathryn had planned to ask Bral if he had any luck in his search for other species capable to  
make war.  
It was an important question, sadly it had to wait until later.   
  
Instead, Janeway let her mind wander, still spinning the fork around in her food.  
She thought about earth, Mark, her family and even dogs.   
But most of all she thought about her three officers, stranded at the planet several civilizations,  
and her own ship, were going to attack.  
She'd made a horrible mistake, and by suggesting an alliance, she was going to make one  
more.  
  
***  
  
The barren landscape made Harry feel bad.   
The fact that his two best friends, who by some to him unknown reason , didn't speak to each  
other also made him feel bad. Very bad.   
  
The three people walked as fast as they could, Harry complained about headache, that he  
couldn't walk in their speed when his head thumped.  
  
Tom ogled beside him every now and then, to the north, he carefully watched how much time  
it was left before the second sunrise over Sprai-koo.   
  
When they could dimly see a pink/orange shimmer take form at the north horizon, they reached  
their destination. A huge gate in front of a huge building. Everything went in grey and black, a  
perfect match to the dark brown soil underneath their tired feet.  
  
Harry's leg, up to the knee, pounded hard and painful. To B'Elanna's curiosity, he made an  
ugly grimace, but she never asked.   
  
Instead she turned to Tom,  
"Are we going to knock at the gate and ask for permission to step inside?"  
  
Her first words to him nearly half an hour. Even if she was very sarcastic, the ice was broken  
for this time.  
  
"Yes, of course! An you'll have the honor to knock. After all it was the Day Of Honor only a  
few days ago."  
  
B'Elanna prepared to knock at the door with her knuckles, Tom put a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"With your shoulder."  
  
"Did you throw yourself at this gate too when you were here, looking for a 'job'?"  
  
"Er... no. I walked around it, and then used a tunnel I found running from the inside of a cave.  
But that place is at least three kilometers straight ahead, and we don't have the time it takes to  
get around."  
  
Harry felt responsible, like if his 'headache' was slowing them down too much.   
  
"All right." B'Elanna held up a hand, warding off. The last thing she needed now was another  
lecture regarding their pressed time schedule.  
  
She threw herself at the closed gate, feet the hard, tough material resist and send the recoil of  
her power back into her own body.  
  
But B'Elanna Torres refused to give up, and threw herself at her tall, silent opponent a few  
more times, until her whole body ached.   
What really made her mad was that it was her own strength which caused her all the pain.  
  
With her hands on her knees, she leaned forward and breathed heavily. She was so  
disappointed at herself. They might not get any further, and if they didn't it was her fault.   
  
The three of them all knew that she was the only one who could do it. Harry and Tom weren't  
strong enough, and the gate was so narrow that only one person could walk through it at the  
time. B'Elanna also knew how badly the both men wanted to help her, but couldn't.  
  
It was all up to her, if they had to give up and turn around, or if they would be able to get back  
home at all.   
  
So she gathered all her disappointment, anger and powerlessness into one last kick, right  
between where the two gate halves met.  
  
To her own big surprise, it creaked loudly.  
Tom and Harry however, wasn't startled at all. They had known al along that she'd make it,  
that she'd get them in. The dear half-Klingon was too stubborn not to.   
  
Once again she used her black and blue shoulder, the last time, and the gate flung open.   
She fell on all fours at the ground behind their first obstacle. It looked, and felt, just as cold   
and dirty as the one outside.  
  
She remained there, drawing deep breaths. Nobody helped her up.  
  
Harry had already hobbled to the next gate, one with a technical lock, and he already tried to  
break through it, eager to be to some help.  
  
Tom closed the first gate the best he could from the inside.  
  
B'Elanna helped herself up and brushed the dirt off her dark clothes when Tom walked by.  
  
"Good job." He smiled appreciatingly at her.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
The ice was definitely broken.  
  
"YES!!" Harry's pleased scream echoed everywhere around them, washing over the  
whispering couple.  
  
"Shhhh!" They hissed in unison.  
  
Harry looked like a child who just had been caught, while stealing mommy's cookies.   
"I'm so sorry! I completely forgot--"  
  
He tried to whisper as low as he could to compensate for his yelling. Tom and B'Elanna had to  
strain themselves to hear.  
  
"Never mind, Har. Are you through?"  
  
Harry happily looked at his male friend. he'd done his part.   
"You bet I am!"  
  
*** 


	8. Part 8

Many eventless minutes elapsed after their dinner, but finally, Bral took a little time to have a  
private conversation with Voyager's Captain.  
  
"I presume you had a few questions you wanted to ask me during dinner?"  
  
They actually sat again, at a round table in a private room.   
  
"I do. First, I want to know exactly who we're going up against."  
  
"It was you who got the ball rolling!"  
  
"Yes, but I don't know 'who' I'm rolling it towards."  
  
Bral sighed.  
"Do you want... names?"  
  
"Only the top dogs'."  
  
He sighed again, heavier this time. 'She has to know.' He thought.  
  
Kathryn could see that he hesitated, felt his aversion to tell her.  
  
"Her name is Scrih." He finally said, his voice shivered a little.  
  
"A female ruler?"  
  
"Is that rare where you come from? You are female yourself, or do I have to remind you of  
that?"  
  
They both laughed.  
  
"No, I was just surprised that you want to attack a woman. Women are often considered  
defenseless." She sent a thought to her fiery Chief Engineer, and it made her smile.   
  
"Not here. Scrih is one of the toughest and smartest rulers. Definitely the most dangerous, her  
looks can really twist a man's head. Or so I've been told." He coughed a little.  
  
'Good saving,' Kathryn thought sarcastically. 'Sadly for you, I've got Tom Paris in my crew.  
And you can't believe what kind of prevarication that man's using.'  
"Sounds like you've met her?"  
  
For the third time, Bral sighed. "I met her when the Taali and the Sprai-koo still   
visited each other's planets."  
  
"So why did you stop that visiting?" She asked, curious as she was. If Chakotay had been  
there, he'd condemned her tactic.  
  
"No matter how embarrassing this is for me, you have to know."  
  
'Bingo!' She thought and had to force herself not to clench her fist and hit with it in the air.  
Her curiosity rose.  
"What?"  
  
"It is my fault to a part," he admitted solemny.  
  
"What's your fault?"  
  
"This! The fact that we're arming for war!"  
  
"How come?" Janeway frowned and wobbled around a little with her chair.  
  
"Scrih... it's mostly her fault, though. She is so beautiful. When we met... I fell in love with  
her."  
  
The Captain gasped, that wasn't close to what she'd expected.   
She was so shocked she couldn't make any sound at all, not even one encouraging Bral to go  
on. Lucky for her, he continued without the help of a stunned grunt.   
  
"And I thought she felt the same for me. But... when I wanted to move on to a higher level,  
when I asked her for her hand in marriage, she changed on a second. At first she was so...  
warm and understanding, and gentle. Afterwards she turned to the completely opposite, stone  
cold and calculating. I don't think she'd be the powerful leader she is today, if it wasn't for me.  
I changed her."  
  
'Don't take the credit...' She glared at him.   
"Unfortunately, to the worse. What happened when you proposed?"  
  
"She...she laughed... at me. She laughed right in my face! And with this dispiteful voice she  
said, 'Sprai-koo women don't marry. Especially not mixing our genuine blood with others.'   
She could just as well have spit me in the eye. I was filled with this, this overwhelming rage,  
and I struck her. She fell to her own cold floor! I quickly got out of there, and my foot hasn't  
touched the Sprai-koo ground ever since."  
  
For a second he looked like a escaped madman.  
  
"How can you say that it's mostly her fault?"  
Kathryn was angry. Sure, the Sprai-koo leader, this Scrih, could have turned him down more  
gently, but he should have accepted her 'no' as a man.   
  
"If she had accepted my offer to take her as my wife, we wouldn't have this fight! And there  
you see - it's her fault."  
  
"You're just trying to free yourself! We're in this because of your pathetic relationship!"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
She hadn't seen a man look more bewildered in her life. He was obviously convinced that it  
was all her fault. He wouldn't chance his opinion in a twinkling.   
  
"If you had walked out with some dignity, you wouldn't be fighting this stupid war!"  
  
"You proposed it!" Bral stood up and held up an accusing finger.  
  
Kathryn also stood up,  
"I didn't propose a war! I wanted a few skilled people to help me get my crew back without  
being noticed!"  
  
"That's not what you made me believe."  
  
"What really gets to me is the fact that you only agreed to help me, because you wanted to  
take revenge on your ex! Only because the woman didn't want to marry you! Who knows, she  
might have been willing to continue your relationship anyway - if you hadn't hit her."  
  
"I don't think she would. And-- "  
  
Janeway interrupted Bral when he opened his mouth again.  
"Maybe she just wanted to be free!"  
  
"Can you let me finish! You were wrong about my reason. I'm not after revenge, though it  
should be sweet, no - I want what's rightfully mine." Bral sighed deeply, like he was carrying  
the weight of his homeplanet on his shoulders.  
  
"She stole your belt or something?"  
  
Bral gave her an annoyed glare.  
"Before I met her - and about hundred years back in time - the Taali and the Sprai-koo  
exchanged... delicatessen."  
  
"Such as?" She finally stopped pacing the small room and sat down again to.  
  
"We shipped a leaf, called 'Iy' to them, the only spice you can use making the Kaari-soup. In  
exchange for our Iy-leaves, we got a crystal-clear liquid. It has a lovely taste, and after just one  
sip, just one, you can feel the spirits returning. But it was along time since I tasted that  
wonderful liquid. Due to the leaves, our people agreed on calling it, too 'Iy'."  
  
"Let me guess. When you two broke up, the deliveries stopped."  
  
"Yes. We were both stubborn, and we had both contacts. All trading with the Sprai-koo  
stopped almost immediately."  
  
"Amazing how two people can make such a mess. You've deprived millions of people their  
delicatessen!"  
  
"And I want my people to once again be able to drink the Laemp, a drink made of Iy and  
what's robbed from us."  
  
"Then why not reestablish the trading?"  
  
"Like I said - both Bral and Scrih are stubborn. And with the high positions we both have  
today, it's impossible to get along."  
  
"I don't understand."  
  
"Nobody expects you to, after all, you're only human."  
  
Kathryn snorted.  
  
"Besides, you cannot pull Voyager out now, it's to late."  
  
"To my big grief. I want to put you, without your crew, together with Scrih and let you two  
solve this on your own. If you just could talk to each other, it wouldn't have to be a war at  
all."  
  
Bral let out a donkey laugh.  
"She wouldn't listen if we so were trapped together in a burning ship!"  
  
"Then let me."  
  
"Sorry?"  
  
"I'll go down, by myself, and talk to her."  
  
"They'll never let you in. 'She'll' never let you in." Another donkey-laugh.  
  
"Don't worry... I'll send her your regards."  
  
"Oh, you're smart! She'll think that you're trying to form a conspiracy towards me!"  
  
"What do you think now?" Janeway's lips curved upwards, to form a bitter smile.  
  
He nodded, "It could work."  
  
"So you'll let me do it."  
  
"What would you do if I said no?"  
  
"Go anyway."  
  
"Then what choice do I have? I prefer to know where you are."  
  
"I don't like being watched." She tapped her commbadge before the Taali in front of her had a chance to open his big, black  
mouth.  
  
::Janeway to Voyager, one to beam aboard::  
  
Captain Kathryn Janeway dissolved when the blue transporter beam appeared, and Bral was  
left alone.   
He shook his head with the black/brown spots, his red hair flew around his shoulders and back.  
He stared at the spot where Janeway had been, something inside of him began to break. What  
if it wasn't Scrich's fault, after all?  
  
*  
  
In that moment he looked a lot like Neelix, who was helping Naomi Wildman to bake a  
Terrelian birthday cake at the same time the Captain appeared in the transporter room.  
  
He shook his head in disbelief, should a birthday cake really look like that?   
  
*** 


	9. Part 9

B'Elanna carefully touched the wound at her shoulder. A burning wave of pain shot through  
her body. At least they were in.   
  
After Harry had forced through the second gate, the rest was easy. Ten meters behind it was a,  
to humans, normal sized door. And - it was unlocked, they only had to step inside. No one was  
to be seen there, apparently they didn't expect anyone to break in through their front door.   
And who would, and could do that, except Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim.   
Three persons, only three, but they alone could be more to deal with for the Sprai-koo than  
usual.   
  
With Harry and B'Elanna trying to conquer their pain, B'Elanna the most successful one, Tom  
was the only one without severe physical damages.  
  
"What are we looking for, really?" Harry pressed his teeth together, the pain had increased.  
  
"We're looking for a control room." Tom stated, leading the way through the many hallways.  
He had absolutely no idea where they were, or where they were heading.  
  
"How come we're wandering around like three morons if you know where there's a control  
room?" B'Elanna interfered in the two men's conversation.   
  
"That's the problem - I 'don't' know where there's one."  
  
"How did you do then?"  
  
"I used a console, located smack in the middle of an open hallway. Apperentely they aren't good  
designers here either."   
  
"Why don't we?" Harry managed to groan.  
  
"Is there something wrong, Harry?" B'Elanna said, trying to look into his eyes, Harry avoided  
to do the same. He couldn't lie while someone stared right in his eyes.  
  
"Bad headache."  
  
"Should we stop, just for a moment?"  
  
"No! Keep going!" He almost shouted, but restrained himself in time; it came out as a hostile  
hiss instead.  
  
"As you wish... Anyway, you're kind of exposed in a hallway and it might look suspicious if  
someone sees us and brings us before Scrich." Tom continued talking.  
  
"Now what's so suspicious about that?" B'Elanna asked sarcastically.  
  
"Nothing special, just the fact that I'm here, though I've already got a job, and that I bring  
two other humans with me. And I told Shiral you wouldn't know anything, and Shiral's here."  
  
Tom continued to walk, and talk. He expected B'Elanna to interfere, to say that she wasn't  
totally human like he and Harry, but no answer. In fact, nothing at all, not even the sound of  
moving feet, other than his own.   
  
He turned around to see why no one said anything, and Tom soon got the explanation.   
Kim and Torres had stopped almost fifty feet behind him, when he got closer he saw why.   
  
They stood beside a closed door and smiled at him, amused.  
  
Paris cleared his throat. "Is it locked?"  
  
"No," Harry answered and jumped in, lucky for him, neither Tom or B'Elanna noticed. They  
stayed outside, she wanted to tell him something, he could notice.  
  
"I didn't know you had Nescon relatives." She leaned close to him and whispered.  
  
He smiled at the memory of the odd creatures, the race Nescon, which seemed kind of  
schizophrenic under stress.  
  
*** 


	10. Part 10

It was crammed with buttons, consoles and screens inside the control room.  
  
"How did you find this place?" Tom asked.  
  
"Well, when you've been walking around for hours without seeing any door of any kind, you  
take the chance to peep inside. And it was the right one."  
Harry explained, with a humble tone in his voice, while he tapped at a console frenetically.  
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't see that door." Tom felt a little ashamed, after all he'd been leading their  
way only to find a control room. And then he'd missed it.  
  
B'Elanna reminded him of his mistake once again, ironic enough she hadn't seen it either, just  
stopped when Harry did. Tom didn't have to know that, B'Elanna reasoned.  
  
Tom was at least glad that B'Elanna didn't seem mad at him anymore, though it really wasn't   
his fault that she knocked somebody down.  
She probably just needed a scapegoat, and why not - both Starfleet and Maquis had used him  
for that purpose before. He no longer saw a resolution in arguing about whose fault it actually  
was.  
  
Half an hour later, Tom had found several copies of their warpcore blueprints.  
"According to this data, they're already building a prototype."  
  
"Stupid idiots!" B'Elanna muttered from her position, still with her nose buried in her work.   
"They can't put an engine designed by Starfleet, to fill the 'fleet's purposes into one of their  
ships without improving the entire ship."  
  
"What if they install their prototype and blows themselves up? That's not our business."  
Harry mentioned.  
  
"Harry," she emphasized his name, and made a pause for effect, this made Harry feel really  
dumb. Tom didn't even seem to bother, like he already knew the answer, but in reality he  
listened carefully to her Torres explain her theory.  
  
"When we were on our way down I made some extra sensor reading. They indicated an  
unstable atmosphere, if it blows up, the active subatomic particles will cause a huge explosion.  
And if Voyager still is in this orbit when they engage..."  
She made another pause, finishing her sentence for good.  
  
"Like a nuclear bomb." Tom put in, blowing his 'couldn't care less' cover.  
  
"I'M IN! THEIR MAIN COMPUTER, SYSTEMS, EVERYTHING! I'VE GOT IT ALL IN  
MY HAND!!" Harry shrieked, his words bouncing back and fourth several times.  
  
"Harry, you've got to stop being so ardent telling us what you've accomplished."  
Tom drew sharply for air. His father had used those exact words to him when he'd made his  
first roll with a shuttle. He remembered that he, eleven years old, had been very depressed after  
that.  
  
"It was just a joke." He hurried to say, a little too fast according to B'Elanna's uneasy look.  
  
"Tom, I didn't think you were sincere, and I won't ever think that when you make a sentence  
like that."  
  
'Just wish my father would have been a joker too.' He thought, and made an attempt to save  
his face.  
  
"Good! I'm just checking. Download the crap now!" Tom laughed halfhearted and looked pretty sheepish.  
'Smooth, Tom!' He admonished himself.  
  
"Already done." Harry replied.  
  
"Then we're finished, right?" B'Elanna moaned.  
  
"What is it, Maquis?"  
  
"I've got a headache! Probably caught it from you."  
  
Harry flushed at her last words, but she didn't notice and continued.  
  
"Or maybe from all these annoying buttons and this indecipherable writing."  
  
"I'm sorry, B'Elanna, but Harry had to get the only translator."  
  
"I know, and now he's found what he was looking for all along, and you've got the blueprints.  
So, let's get out of here!"  
  
The two men agreed and they had just began to approach the door when footsteps was to be  
heard. 'Oh, no! Not again!' Tom mentally groaned.  
  
"Be quiet!" the former Maquis engineer hissed.  
  
Harry collapsed in a corner, his foot felt like it was ready to burst. When he moved after  
standing still for such a long time, everything flushed over him again, and twice as hard.  
He could feel little beads of sweat take form at his forehead. He closed his eyes, not wanting  
anything else than to go to sleep.  
  
At the same time Harry's eyes closed, the door in front of his two buddies began to open.   
Tom immediately put an arm around B'Elanna's shoulder and quietly dragged her away from  
the doorway.  
  
When an arm and almost a whole shoulder was visible where the closed door should have  
been, B'Elanna grabbed the arm and violently pulled the person outside into the room.  
  
Tom hurried to shut the door and then looked up at the Sprai-koo male pressed against a wall.   
  
"Ecbel!" He said, astonished.  
  
"Tim! Tell this monster to let me go!"  
  
B'Elanna smiled innocently, "Do you know this subtle person?"  
  
"He escorted me to Scrich, and later to Morekay. A lost soul, just like you and me." He  
winked at B'Elanna. She loosened her tight grip and stepped back.  
Ecbel massaged his sore shoulders.  
  
"What is this? Mutiny?"  
  
"You want to help us?" Tom grinned.  
  
"Most certainly not!" Ecbel looked terrified, or at least he tried to.  
  
"You don't have to pretend. I know how badly you want to get out. You said yourself that  
you dreaded her." Tom pushed.  
  
"Oh, okay. I'll be glad if this coming war can come to an end even before it started. But  
according to my vows, I have to object if someone suggests mutery, and you do."  
  
"What stupid laws do you have here?!"  
  
"B'Elanna! Shut it! Ecbel, you've been loyal to your vows. You have objected already, does it  
say how many time you have to stand up for her?"  
  
"No, not anywhere that I know of."  
  
"Then, technically, you can help us now..."  
  
"No!"  
  
"Oh, after what I saw back at Voyager, you'd sell your own mother if the price was right!"  
B'Elanna spat.  
  
"My mother happens to be dead!"  
  
"Do you have any other family?" Tom said, thankful because B'Elanna had given him an idea.  
  
"No."  
  
"Then you're a bachelor, and a bachelor is free to do whatever he wants!"  
  
"But my work--"  
  
"Work! Work doesn't stop a free bachelor to fulfill his dreams."  
  
Ecbel's eyes lit up.  
"Your right! I guess I can fulfill my dreams! So what do you want me to do?"  
  
"Help us find a way out of here!"  
  
B'Elanna narrowed her eyes. She didn't like his quick exchange from exaggerating no-sayer to  
exaggerating gay and helpful. She wondered if Tom knew and had a brilliant plan involving this  
newcoming 'I have Neelix's personality' copy.  
  
"Not to sound whiny Tim, but can your friend walk?"  
  
Tom and B'Elanna quickly turned to Harry, they both thought that he was in the background,  
ready to defend himself. He sat behind them.   
  
"Harry! What's the matter?" She threw herself to her knees beside Harry.  
  
"My foot... hurts. I sprained it when I jumped. I lied... didn't have a headache." He mumbled,  
trying to smile.   
  
"It's okay, Har. You'll be fine. What will we do now?" She turned to Tom, who looked at  
Ecbel.   
  
"Er... I can take him to my room for a while." Ecbel volunteered, feeling pressured to say  
something by Tom's eyes.  
  
"Thank you! We truly appreciate it. If you could describe the way to somewhere when you can  
send a message to a ship far away..."  
  
"I'll take care of it."  
  
"Great! Thanks! Oh, I'll have to introduce you! Ecbel - this is Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres.  
Harry, B'Elanna - Ecbel Ecbal." He made a few fast motions with his hands.  
  
Ecbel looked confused when Tom pronounced B'Elanna's name. He tried to copy but  
stumbled already at the E.  
  
"Just call me 'Lanna'," she suggested.  
  
*** 


	11. Part 11

"Kathryn, are you sure you want to do this?"  
  
Janeway pulled her full-dress jacket over her green tank top.  
"Chakotay, I have the unique chance to save a civilization, possibly two from annihilation."  
  
"It's not that unique, I actually know several Starfleet Captain's which have done exactly that.  
James T. Kirk several times in fact."  
  
"What are you trying to do?" She raised one eyebrow.  
  
"Trying to get you mad enough to stay."  
  
"It's not working, so you can stop trying."  
  
"Is the sight of saving millions the only reason?" He didn't give up.  
  
"Gee, you make it sound so pity."  
  
"Do you think this is fun?!"  
  
"There's another reason." She said to get him concentrated on their allies more than his anger  
towards her.  
"I also have the chance to patch up a relationship between two leaders of different delta  
quadrant reses. That's something I haven't heard any Starfleet do before."  
  
"Can't anybody else in this quadrant play matchmaker?"  
  
"You know, sometimes you're pretty funny without relaxing it yourself."  
  
"Harry is down there, he's a good guy, let him do it!" Chakotay didn't back off.  
  
"You're beginning to sound desperate... Why not let B'Elanna or Tom?"  
  
"Harry is a bit more... smooth."  
  
"And you're way out of subject." Janeway stated and got rid of an invisible hair from her shoulder.  
  
"You led me to it!"  
  
"I did not!"  
  
"I don't want you to go, Kathryn! Please stay and let us come up with a mutual plan!"  
  
"I didn't listen to Bral, and he was at least all sober. Why should I listen to someone sounding  
as desperate as you?"  
  
"Because I am second in command, the unofficial counselor, and your true friend."  
  
"And I am the Captain, and 'official' commander of this ship, as well as your true friend."  
  
"It doesn't matter what I say to make you say, does it?"  
  
"Finally you're getting it," she said with comviction,  
  
Chakotay frowned. "Not at all?"  
  
"Not at all." 


	12. Part 12

***  
  
"Can you really read a map, Tom?"  
  
"How come?"  
  
"I for one didn't expect the closest way to a transmitter to lead through a dark, cold and damp  
basement."  
  
"The Klingon sensitiveness striking?"  
  
"Something like that." B'Elanna snorted, a bit too unfriendly, while tramping through a layer  
of something that looked like a layer of thin mud.  
  
"According to Ecbel's map, we should find a hatch leading up soon."  
  
"Oh, and I thought it was supposed to lead down! How can you trust him at all?"  
  
"We were lucky he showed up when he did! If it had been another Sprai-koo officer, we could  
have been in great trouble."  
  
"I should have taken anyone easily." B'Elanna fingered at something in her pocket.  
  
"I don't doubt that, but what would have happened when he woke up, or someone found him?  
Scrich would know instantly , and Harry would be forced to flee in his condition!"  
  
"Okay, you trust him, and I'll have to trust you. Hey, is this that hatch?"  
  
Tom was startled by B'Elanna admitting that she actually trusted him, but not as surprised as  
he'd been when she confessed her love for him. He hadn't been able to speak then. It wasn't  
many times he found himself unable to answer, not many times at all.   
  
"Well, is it the right one?!"  
  
He snapped out of his thoughts and finally looked up. There, above B'Elanna's dark hair, three  
thin lines of light met him.  
After a quick glance at the map, he confirmed that it had to be.  
  
"Can you reach it?"  
  
"Can you?"  
  
"No."  
  
"You are a lot taller than me... If you can't reach it, how do you expect me to?" She said with  
amusement.  
  
"We'll have to find a solution." He looked at her. She stared back, a wicked smile curving the  
end of her lips.  
  
*  
A minute later, Tom was on all fours with B'Elanna standing straight at his back, hitting at the  
closed hatch with her palm.  
  
"Are you done soon? This doesn't feel good," he groaned.  
  
"My high heels or the humiliation?"  
  
"Both."  
  
"I wish I had a holocamera!" B'Elanna laughed. Tom grunted from his exceptional position.  
  
"It's giving in!"  
  
"Finally!" Tom said breathless. "It feels like my lungs are punctured, with my own ribs, broken  
by your shoes. Couldn't you have removed them?"  
  
"Then you would have suffocated." B'Elanna flung the hatch open, the sound drowning  
Tom's chuckle. She pulled herself up, her heels finally leaving Tom's back.  
  
He jumped up from the disgusting water he'd been kneeling in and grabbed the floor which  
was hosting the hatch, and pulled himself up too.  
  
When he got up, a big surprise awaited him.  
They weren't inside a warm, dry transmission room. The walls were grey, the room utterly  
small, and as damp and cold as the basement. At last it was brighter light there, only helping  
them to see the mess around them.  
  
"What is this?" He asked struck with wonder, though he already knew the answer. "It looks  
like an old prison cell." He told himself more than he talked with Torres.  
  
"WE'VE BEEN HAD, PARIS!!" B'Elanna shouted, at the same time a heavy rain began to  
fall outside.   
  
A door in front of them opened and three guards came in, two of them were the ones Tom had  
met outside Scrich's office.  
  
"You are under arrest. You have no right--" The one unknown to Tom said monotone. He  
never got the time to finish his sentence though, because B'Elanna's foot flew up and broke his  
fragile jaw.  
The other two had to take several punches before their bodies gave up and collapsed.   
  
She reached down and relieved them from their complicated guns. She handed one to Tom,  
put one in her belt and took a firm hold around the other one.  
  
Then something suddenly came to both B'Elanna's and Tom's minds, they looked up at each  
other in panic.  
  
"HARRY!!" They shouted at the same time, and ran out to the hallway outside.  
  
*** 


	13. Part 13

***  
  
Harry was brusquely awakened by five men storming in.   
He was in Ecbel's bed and his foot did no longer hurt.  
But around him were the five men, and Ecbel, gathered. Armed to their teeth.  
  
'He sold us out!' Flew through Harry's now wide awake brain and body. 'He sold me, Tom  
and B'Elanna out!'  
  
"You're going to see Scrich!" One of them around him announced with a deep voice.  
  
The next thing Harry knew they dragged him out of the warm, but very hard, bed.  
  
***  
  
Harry found himself staring into the orange/green pair of eyes belonging to Scrich.  
Beside her sat a short Sprai-koo male, probably expected to immortalize Harry's exact words  
onto a PADD or some paper.  
  
"Who are you?" Scrich asked softly.  
  
"Who are 'you'?" Harry shot back, hostile.  
  
"I'm Scrich and right now I want useful information, or life, from you."  
  
"What do you mean with 'life'?" Harry swallowed.  
  
"Give me information, your life or give me a child. You choose."  
  
Harry swallowed again. He hadn't got good choices.   
And she looked like she meant what she said, the six people behind him did not encourage him  
to think otherwise.   
  
Inside he worked febrile to come up with something that could buy him some more time.   
  
Suddenly, after he'd felt several waves or cold fear come crawling, he remembered something.   
He had gone through every little bit of information about the Sprai-koo he had in his head,  
when Tom's words came to his mind.  
'The Sprai-koo people have got a very hard time remembering names, you can really confuse  
them.'  
  
Harry almost smiled, but restrained himself in time.   
Lucky for him, he didn't think slow, the time that had passed from when Scrich asked and he  
began to talk couldn't have been more than a minute. To Harry's panicking mind and body if  
felt like a year. A cold, hostile, settling year of his life. Settling if he could continue to live, or if  
it was his time to die. Only time could show.  
  
"I'm Harry," he finally said, making pause for effect like B'Elanna.  
"Harry Kim, of the United Federation of Planets, also known as Starfleet. I'm from the ship  
U.S.S. Voyager, a United federation of Planets ship.   
  
I'm a human, but you might prefer hunan 'cause that's what everyone else here says. But you  
can also say Terran, that's the same. And wait, there's a third option: earthling.   
So I'm a human, a Terran or an earthling, or al three, but since they're the same - just choose  
one. It's everyone's own choice completely.  
  
Tom, or Tim, is also a human. Or Terran, or earthling. And he's been in the Maquis for three  
weeks, and I can assure you that that's longer than I have!  
Before than he served on a ship called the Exeter, I can't remember it's registration number ,  
so just let it pass, okay?   
  
And B'Elanna, she's been in the Maquis for several years!   
Her mother is called Miral, but that's nothing important. Oh, wait! It is! Miral, her mother, is  
Klingon, and B'Elanna's father, John Torres, is human, earthling or Terran.   
That makes B'Elanna half Klingon and half Terran, earthling or human. And then it's--"  
  
"STOP!!" Scrich roared.  
  
The person expected to write had stopped trying long ago, and was now massaging his  
temples, looking somewhat agonized.  
  
Harry's mouth was dry, and his throat soared. He couldn't remember the last time he spilled  
that much.   
  
"Take him to jail!" Scrich stood up and pointed towards the door.   
  
When Ecbel and the five guards lead Harry away, they all could hear Scrich mumble something  
about what Ecbel had given Harry to grease his glib tongue.   
  
Back out in the hallway, Harry smiled to himself. One of the guards saw it and pushed his  
elbow into Harry's abdomen.   
  
"What's that?" Someone asked, and everybody stopped.  
  
Harry thought it sounded amazingly like a Klingon war call, he wasn't sure it was but at least  
he hoped so.  
  
*** 


	14. Part 14

***  
  
"Lieutenant Wildman! Please go and see if the 'Miracle' is ready."  
  
"Yes, Captain." Samantha Wildman hurried away with the Captain's orders.  
  
Janeway walked through Voyager's hallways with her first officer in her wake.  
  
"Is it wise to have three of our precious shuttles down there?" He asked, now beside her.  
  
"What do you mean, Commander?"  
  
"They already perish like hot cakes."  
  
"They shouldn't if they were made by Neelix." She chuckled, but Chakotay looked really  
worried.  
  
"Kathryn, please!"  
  
"We'll build new ones."  
  
"What if we don't have the resources to do that?"  
  
"Bother your pretty little head with the double shifts you have assigned several people  
instead..." She messed up his hair, turned around and entered the shuttle bay.  
  
Outside remained Chakotay, struck all of a heap. 


	15. Part 15

***  
  
Since the Captain, Harry, B'Elanna and Tom had left the ship and the fact that Voyager faced a  
cold war, the most crewmembers aboard did not have any lust to do anything except work, eat  
and sleep.   
  
That's why only Neelix, Kes, Joe Carey, the Doctor, and of course, Naomi had gathered for  
Sam Wildman's birthday.  
  
While Sam cut the cake Neelix and Naomi had made, Kes took Neelix to the side.  
  
"I'm so worried about them! I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't even pretend to be happy for  
Sam!" She whispered, devastated.  
  
"I'm sure all four of them are going to be fine. They always end up in good shape."  
  
"Not this time. Not if we refuse to do anything."  
  
"Is it that bad?"  
  
"I have this strange feeling... I think they're being betrayed, right now."  
  
"But what could we do? Let the senior officers handle this, they are much better than us. Well,  
than me..."  
  
"Chakotay can help us."  
  
"How?"  
  
"We have to get down there to bring them back!"  
  
"Lets ask that... Bral."  
  
"No! He'll think that we're starting this war! No, Neelix.... We have to be discrete."  
  
*  
  
Twenty minutes later, Neelix and Kes had already wished Naomi and her mother a good night,  
they now entered the Bridge under silence.  
  
Only Tuvok and Chakotay were there.  
Kes walked up to the former Maquis leader.  
  
"We need your help." She said without any hesitation.  
  
"What, Kes?" Chakotay looked up from his station and studied the fragile Ocampa.  
  
"We have to pick our friends up from the Sprai-koo homeworld! They're in great danger if we  
don't act soon."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"I can feel it."  
  
"Can I trust your feelings?" Chakotay squirmed in the Captain's chair.  
  
"Neelix believes in me."  
  
Neelix stood some feet away, he was most reluctant to the whole idea, but he tried to look  
convinced that she was right.  
  
"And we have to do this without the Taali knowing anything about it." Chakotay stated.  
  
"Too late, sir. The six Taali ships are already beginning to move." Tuvok announced from the  
console he worked with.  
  
"Their commander gave us his word that he would wait for the Captain's signal!"  
  
"They must have noticed the shuttle, believing that we are conspiring against them."  
  
*** 


End file.
